The worst raaaaacism charge against Romney evah?

posted at 8:21 pm on August 30, 2012 by Jazz Shaw

Ron Fournier, editor in chief of National Journal, has taken time out of his busy day to pen a hit piece on Mitt Romney which really must be read to be believed. (Though you may want to brace yourself ahead of time with either strong drink or your acid reflux disease medicine.) Titled, Why (and How) Romney is Playing the Race Card, it appears that Ron feels he’s struck on the final, definitive, proof-positive that Romney is running for the position of Racist in Chief and is relying on all of those evil, secretly racist white people to hustle him into office while keeping their ignorant views on the Down Low.

Our story begins with the author speaking to two middle class, working guys. I should point out… white guys since Ron takes such pains to do so. And one of them is a childhood friend of his. They are discussing the question of “middle-class blacks and Hispanics are far more optimistic about their children’s future than are whites of the same economic status.

“What do you think the unemployment rate is among blacks? In Detroit, it’s probably 40 percent. If the unemployment rate is that high, why is it that they are so optimistic about their future and the future of their children?”

Benson paused, heard no reply, and answered his own question.

“Subsidization.”

There it is. The Macomb County buzz word for welfare, a synonym that rests on the tongues of the white middle class like sour milk.

And even though Ron takes pains to point out that these men “don’t use the N-word” and are not “filled with hate,” he decides to translate their words for them. (Including his friend.)

“It’s a generational apathy,” Miller said, “and they keep getting more and more (apathetic) because they don’t have to work. If they sleep all day and free money …”

” … Comes in the mail,” Benson said.

“… not in the mail anymore,” Miller said, “It’s in a magic card they can swipe.”

They poked at their egg yolks until Miller broke the silence. “I feel like a fool for not jumping on that shit and getting some (welfare) myself,” Miller said. “But I couldn’t sleep at night.”

I share this story to crack the code – the subtle language of distrust and prejudice that whites use to communicate deep-set fears, and that cynical politicians translate into votes. Translating Miller and Benson:

“Subsidization” = Welfare

“Generational Apathy” = Lazy

“They Slept All Day” = Blacks Sleep All Day

“I Feel Like a Fool” = I’m Mad As Hell

So Ron has decided to take these friends who he defines as people who don’t engage in hate speech and redefine their answers to his questions to make them racists. Why? Because he wants to talk about Mitt Romney’s opposition to the recent changes proposed to welfare rules by President Obama. Fournier dismisses the idea that “work is being removed from welfare” even though it flies in the face of the entirely vague, open door nature of the order. So since we’re not going to bother actually reading the rule and seeing what sort of “options” might be enacted by the states in such an open door situation, Ron finds another reason for Obama penning it.

Kaufman who I’ve known and respected for years, accused me of playing the race card — a fair point, strictly speaking, because I raised the question in a public setting: a joint interview with CBS’ John Dickerson before a large audience and live-streamed.

Still, Romney and his advisers stand by an ad they know is wrong — or, at the very least, they are carelessly ignoring the facts. That ad is exploiting the worst instincts of white voters — as predicted and substantiated by the Republican Party’s own polling.

That leaves one inescapable conclusion: The Romney campaign is either recklessly ignorant of the facts, some of which they possess — or it is lying about why (and how) it is playing the race card.

In one overly wordy swipe, Ron throws his own friend under the bus for the sake of claiming that an advertisement on this subject by Romney doesn’t prove that Mitt is a racist. Oh no! He charges that working class white people across the country are racists, and Mitt is the disingenuous scam artist seeking to capitalize on their hatred for electoral advantage.

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Oh my lord…this truly IS deranged. Its someone trying to find ANY excuse to bring down a man who he KNOWS is not what he writes about, and does it so cynically that he tosses his own friend over a cliff to do so. Just to score political points. How despicable is the left liberal mindset? THIS despicable.

Highlar on August 30, 2012 at 8:37 PM

You sum up the liberal mindset really well. Deranged and despicable! Throw in a “dangerous as hell” and you’ve said it all.

they’re voting for democrats because the gop’s been trying to screw them for ages. you can’t play both sides, stoking white racial resentment and anti-hispanic bigotry and still hope to win minority votes.

lindsey graham was right the other day, your party’s running out of angry white men.

sesquipedalian on August 30, 2012 at 9:22 PM

Look skippy… the democrat party has been actively lying their aZZ’s off for decades about those evil racist rethugs, who hate hate hate you.. I’ve watched politics since I was 12 during the Nixon McGovern rtace….

and your left wing distortions are exactly the same now as then.. you pack Spanish langauge TV with left wing hysterics who lie endlessly, because they’ve discovered, nobody much pays attention to Spanish langauge broadcasts.. so you got away with murder..

We see our laws stomoped on daily by illegals who have been taught by the left’s propaganda machine.. just sink in, and if you can hide long enough.. hey.. what are laws when you WILL vote democrat… right.. after all the Anglo’s stole it all from you anyway…

Groups.. racist groups like “the race”.. La Raza.. can’t tell hispanics enough lies to keep them scared to death of the whites who stole all their land.. as they tell it..

The racism and enraged divisions are engineered by the DEMOCRAT PARTY.. all to mine votes by keeping both whites angry for being made second class citiozens in their own communities.. seeing their laws spit on,.. people murdered, killed by illegals drunk driving to running drugs.. trying to import the third world into the southwest US…

and Hispanic citizens afraid of a backlash that the democrat party deliberately provokes.. then stokes they fears.. their xenophobia.. their racism and their pride to “get back” at the Anglo’s… La Raza is a hate group the rabidly left wing SPLC will never recognize.. because that’s what they do.. gin up divisions.. stoke outrage.. and walk away when their side does exactly what they accuse us of..

“angry white men”?

How about angry citizens.. men and women who see the democrats wipe their Azz’s with our immigration laws.. and if you think assimilated Hispanics do not join us in outrage at having their contributions to America belittled and spit on by a gangsta culture that the left feeds… you are delusional..

hey, look who mooched millions of dollars out of the federal government:

The federal records, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that Romney’s initial rescue attempt at Bain & Company was actually a disaster – leaving the firm so financially strapped that it had “no value as a going concern.” Even worse, the federal bailout ultimately engineered by Romney screwed the FDIC – the bank insurance system backed by taxpayers – out of at least $10 million. And in an added insult, Romney rewarded top executives at Bain with hefty bonuses at the very moment that he was demanding his handout from the feds…

A rhetorical whip to keep the ‘socon blacks’ on the plantation… you know… the ones alienated by the gay marriage issue; and, blacks that are disaffected by the economy from considering ‘other’ options (like voting for Romney).

I suspect that Obozo’s internals say that they can’t lose a single percentage point of the black voter block.

The other reason: revive the ‘white guilt’ factor to prevent the ’08 percentage of white voters from falling away.

People voted for Obama because they wanted to show a black could ‘succeed’ at the most important job in the nation and thereby gain ‘absolution’ for the sins of Amerika’s past… that was the narrative since he had NO qualifications otherwise.

And now, nearly 4 years later, with the stark reality of the situation everywhere, voters are running away from Dear Leader… the (not so) new battle cry of:

THEY’RE ALL RACISTS…! THEY HATE THE BLACK MAN!

It’s a lame, and frantic, attempt to rally the all ’08 voters that are now turning their backs on Obozo.

I’ve been lower working class my entire life.. served in the USAF.. cold war.. worked in the retail food industry for 31 years till my back was crushed.. I’ve known people on welfare that whole time.. and virtually all of them in our semi-rural Ohio town are WHITE.. I’ve handled food stamps.. the paper kind till the EBT cards were adopted.. I’ve seen decent honest folks who just needed a hand up.. not a hand out.. and I know right now several folks playing the system to get free food.. while living, mooching, off family, friends.. promising endlessly they’ll get a job..

but they never do… because sleeping till 2:00 pm is nice.. and work.. weed is their vocation.. work is for chumps..

We’ve all known people like this.. white people.. who play the game.. happy to live at the poverty level.. because nothing hard is required of them.. They HATED welfare reform.. and they would complain endlessly about their RIGHT to food.. shelter.. and earning it?.. why.. their parents didn’t..

so much for racism.. whites complaining about whites..

but Chumpy McLumpypants says we’re hating on black people.. when I’ve never had any reason too.. I’m sure they have slackers everyone does…. but why dwell on something we never see?

Obama is rigging welfare to drop the work ethic.. because the left has always HATED anything which actually helps the poor better themselves.. They want a permenant bottom class, beholden to them.. who vote to keep the bigger cuts coming….

We know the game they play..

They say asking people to work for assistance, hurts their pride.. not in my experience.. they get proud when tghey actually earn their money.. and that can lead to a great many positive things..

and that is why the left will lie and distort to keep the changes..

The left is nothing without a betrayed underclass.. that they can manipulate, lie to.. scare with those Boogeyman rethuglicans…

I’m on SSD.. disability.. from massive spine injuries.. and I miss work.. miss it badly.. it’s a wonder that a man can so wrap his self respect, his self image in what he does.. to feed and clothe his woman.. his children.

I so wish to God.. I could trade the drugs to kill the pain, for a menial job.. just selling groceries to working class folks like me.. I loved being a grocer.. liked talking to my customers.. my friends.. I loved learning everything I could to better serve my customers.. it was my trade.. and I greatly enjoyed it. enjoyed talking about our families.. kids.. handing out candy.. and putting smiles on so many faces..

Our community was mixed.. I saw all kinds of people, and enjoyed asking, learning about them..

but this slug tells me..

I’m a racist to him.. because the welfare ad speaks to me.. to a work ethic..

I always resisted saying it.. but there is no other answer anymore..

Liberalism is a mental disease.

when they can see hate where is doesn’t exist.. read human hearts they do not know.. and smear an entire Nation for not groveling low enough to his liberal messiah..

Romney screwed the FDIC – the bank insurance system backed by taxpayers – out of at least $10 million. And in an added insult, Romney rewarded top executives at Bain with hefty bonuses at the very moment that he was demanding his handout from the feds…

so rodge, was romney a taxpayer or a drain that year?

sesquipedalian on August 30, 2012 at 10:20 PM

I’m guessing rodge is me. And good for you for accepting your accidental binary taxpayer/drain position as valid.

Anyway, you’re telling on yourself. From our earlier discussion:

Taxes aren’t an instantaneous thing. “Every time you purchase something” is still exactly wrong if you will get more from the state annually than you pay to the state annually.

If someone pays $500 in sales tax but gets $1000 in entitlements, they have no tax liability. (FWIW, they have a negative tax liability. They’re making money.)

Please tell me you understand how tax liability works. If not, the discussion needs to focus only on that concept until you do.

rogerb on August 29, 2012 at 9:03 PM

I was serious about the last part of that quote, btw. You need to understand how that works.

Knowing that, I hope you can recognize that there is something else we need to know before we can answer

so rodge, was romney a taxpayer or a drain that year?

Hint: Starts with total, ends with taxes paid. It’s addressed in the second paragraph of the quote above (“If someone pays $500 in sales tax but gets $1000 in entitlements…”)

Do you have all those numbers, or just the FDIC amount? You can see where the info is incomplete until then, right?

I have to say that if they are beating this dead horse this hard they must have some polling that the black vote isn’t going as they had hoped, and changed.
They need that 90%+ or they lose, they know it and they don’t see it happening. That or they are gearing up for a race war.

they’re voting for democrats because the gop’s been trying to screw them for ages. you can’t play both sides, stoking white racial resentment and anti-hispanic bigotry and still hope to win minority votes.

lindsey graham was right the other day, your party’s running out of angry white men.

“We’re headed in the right direction. Unemployment continues to drop and those people who are unemployed, they’re not going to be voting for the party who wants to cut their benefits, cut access to food stamps, cut job training,” Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA) said on MSNBC’s Al Sharpton program.

….besides the hilarious delusion that we are “headed in the right direction”….this democrats freely admits that they are using tax money to buy votes.
Many Hispanics come here specifically to have their children….take advantage of “free” medical services…..and many other goodies democrats hand out to buy their votes with our tax dollars.
Most Illegal Immigrant Families Collect Welfarehttp://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2011/04/most-illegal-immigrant-families-collect-welfare/

States where immigrant households with children have the highest welfare use rates are Arizona (62%), Texas, California and New York with 61% each and Pennsylvania(59%).The study focused on eight major welfare programs that cost the government $517 billion the year they were examined.

Under your hero Obama…almost half the households in this country are receiving government assistance…. There are more people on food stamps than ever before……Incomes are down and unemployment is up…..

Congratulations Sesquil…I’m sure this massive failure is what you consider “headed in the right direction”……

Romney screwed the FDIC – the bank insurance system backed by taxpayers – out of at least $10 million. And in an added insult, Romney rewarded top executives at Bain with hefty bonuses at the very moment that he was demanding his handout from the feds…

so rodge, was romney a taxpayer or a drain that year?

sesquipedalian on August 30, 2012 at 10:20 PM

….and yet your liberal a$$ will pull the lever for obama who has watched Fannie/Freddie sit there uncapped with tens of millions of tax payer dollars going down their drain while they collect big fat bonuses (just like Goldman Sachs…AIG….and other lending institutions that oBama’s boy Geithner was part of) and walk away scott free after being the major reason for the economic collapse in 2008.

You want a powerful commercial, go to Detroit and interview some people and ask them what they think about their future under a President Obama and what they think it would be under a President Romney. I’d bet they believe they’d be better under Obama. Then ask them why? I’ll bet they can’t explain it. I’d love Romney to go in to Detroit and meet with the same people, figure out what the problem is and tell them what the solution is and do it.

My point is, Obama doesn’t have a clue but the people in Detroit don’t know that. What he says sounds good to them. They really need to be enlightened.

I wish some of the race-baiters would come around to these parts and try to make a living. We’re all equal around here, and we’re all broke; none of the race-baiting bullshit will obtain favor for anyone of any color, creed, caste, or other ill-conceived stereotype of any hue.

We need jobs, opportunities, and most of all, we need the jackboot of federal regulation off the backs of our poor little Appalachia so we can eke out a living.

This might be all philosophical for most of you, but for me and most of my neighbors, it’s a matter of survival and self-sufficiency vs. existence and dependence.

They need that 90%+ or they lose, they know it and they don’t see it happening. That or they are gearing up for a race war.

Gwillie on August 30, 2012 at 10:54 PM

The question to me is not what percentage supports Obama but what percentage of those who still support him will bother to vote this year. Not a lot of enthusiasm there. When you add the pro-Romney numbers to the soft-on-Mitt-but-ABO numbers and their enthusiasm level, I’m thinking wipeout.

Even assuming that every single republican is a secret or not-so-secret racist, so what? How does that respond to a single republican argument about Obama being a complete failure and arguments on specific policies?

I hate to break it to you – but crying “racist” doesn’t dispute the point about Obama undoing welfare reform. Nor does it dispute that Obama is a failure. Nor does it dispute that we have an entitlement time bomb ticking away. Nor does it dispute that democrats have offered absolutely no plan to responsibly deal with entitlements, debt, deficit or anything else. Nor does it deal with the horrible, horrible mess that Obamacare is. Nor does it deal with any other issue.

Calling someone you disagree with a racist does not win the argument. It isn’t even engaging in the argument. Indeed, it is admitting that you are unable to counter the argument and thus are giving up on the argument and trying to deflect attention from your miserable failure.

So, sure, we are all racists. Believe that if you must. But, that doesn’t mean we are wrong on policy issues. Indeed, your failure to respond to policy arguments proves we are right.

Further, the only way to prove we are not racists, according to your idiotic theory, is for us to give in and accept your arguments. So, in your dishonest, depraved little mind, anyone who disagrees with you about anything is a racist.

That about explains your world-view. That explains your ideology. You can’t think, you can only emote. Therefore, you can’t compete in the arena of ideas. Accordingly, you resort to simply trying to discount political opponents by “knowing” that they are evil and have impure motives.

Why do Democrats only think that black people get welfare or are lazy or whatever racist stereotype they like to use?

The Democrats are losing their minority base in the upcoming election – they will either not go vote, not vote for President, or vote Republican.
Democrats are running scared; in a panic.
Obama is a failure…he has nothing to promote but fear and racism.
And the Democrats will fail at that, too.

The racist ones are the democrats. They project their own feelings onto everyone, because they foolishly assume that everyone sees the world as they do. DO we remember the foolish comments attributed to high ranking democrats regarding Obama? Clinton, Reid, Biden, etc?

Sesq has merely demonstrated the normal tendency of democrats to utterly fail at any fact based argument. Rog has asked for the entire thread a simple question – which Sesq has failed to answer – either because he knows the answer and is embarrassed to say it,or because he doesn’t know the answer because his worldview cannot allow him to acknowledge the answer.

Sesq – I have another question for you, and since this thread is pretty much dead I will keep looking for you elsewhere, what does the modern day DC dem party stand for/ What are its parties standing principles – outside of the right to kill babies all the time and have women’s advocates ask us to fund their own promiscuity and walk around in genitalia costumes asking us to take them seriously. What do they stand for?

When your ideology prevents you from answering a yes or no question after you’ve written this less than 45 minutes before:

a tax is a tax, regardless of whether you receive government support at the same time. this is important because of this malarkey about half of Americans not paying taxes that’s been proliferating freely in wingnuttia. it’s a lie.

Thanks for your part in demonstrating the issue to the lurkers and new readers, though. It’s an election year and there are lots of independents coming around who have heard buzzwords and talking points like

this is important because of this malarkey about half of Americans not paying taxes that’s been proliferating freely in wingnuttia. it’s a lie.

“That leaves one inescapable conclusion: The Romney campaign is either recklessly ignorant of the facts, some of which they possess — or it is lying about why (and how) it is playing the race card.” -Ron Fournier

Please allow me to decode this and make audible the dog whistle:

“I am a self-loathing white man, a condition brought on by decades of misplaced pity and the resulting unatoned guilt. The best way I’ve found of boosting my low self-esteem when I contemplate the many societal sins I wish to expiate is the employment of masochism and sadism. As a masochist, I inflict pain on myself by alienating myself from my tribe. As a sadist, I seek to inflict pain on members of my tribe to prove to everyone that I am not one of them, that I am superior to them. Thereby, I gain acceptance from other tribes with which I have chosen to align myself, and my tribe is shamed and unable to credibly contradict the awful secrets I have divulged about it.” -Ron Fournier

What stuns me is that your attacks on this thread alone are worse than the things that others have already been banned for in the past. Why you have not had the boom lowered on you as of yet is quite perplexing. Normally they let people with opposing views stay, but your methods and means surpassed the worst of Hotair’s previous trolls a long time ago.

We don’t hate. Your kind are not worthy of that level of emotion. At the worst, we feel sorrow that anyone can become so thoroughly brainwashed by leftist propaganda that they honestly believe the tripe they spew. You are intractable and, hence, something we might spare a tiny portion of pity upon. But hate? You have a hyperinflated sense of your own self worth. We don’t care enough to hate you.

So, always phrase it as federal income tax to keep the sesquepeidlians of the world from giving a weaselly answer.

Monkeytoe on August 31, 2012 at 11:14 AM

That won’t stop her. Weaselly is all she’s got.

She has no idea what any conservative believes. She has no concern what any conservative thinks. She has her talking points handed to her by her betters and it has never occured to her to question them. And it never will.